


still I refrain

by swallowthewhale



Category: DC's Legends of Tomorrow (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-03-24
Updated: 2017-03-26
Packaged: 2018-10-10 05:04:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,000
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10429761
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/swallowthewhale/pseuds/swallowthewhale
Summary: “You’re cute,” Snart says, and it’s so unexpected that the grin is momentarily replaced by utter shock and a pinch of heartbreak.It’s gone before Snart can properly recognize it, though. “Damn.” She slides her feet off the table. “I was going for intimidating and vaguely threatening.”





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Takes place some time after Snart joining the Legion of Doom. I was bummed by the lack of interaction between Sara and Leonard, so I decided to create my own.

They don’t search her very well, which Sara presumes she has Merlyn’s absence to thank. He knows her too well. She’s out of her cuffs before Darkh’s footsteps fade away down the hall, and has her feet propped up on the table when the door opens again minutes later.

She plasters her scariest shit-eating grin on her face before looking up. It’s a sign of how far she’s come that it only wavers a little when Snart leans against the door frame. Or maybe it’s a sign of how completely not over his death she is that her smile even wavers at all. Her poker face used to be much better.

“You’re cute,” Snart says, and it’s so unexpected that the grin is momentarily replaced by utter shock and a pinch of heartbreak.

It’s gone before Snart can properly recognize it, though. “Damn.” She slides her feet off the table. “I was going for intimidating and vaguely threatening.”

Snart smirks, but the humor doesn’t reach his eyes.

They look dead, Sara thinks, and not as brilliantly blue as she remembers. She wonders what they’ve done to him before she remembers, again, that she’s never met this Snart. This isn’t even the Snart that stepped foot on the Waverider and stared at her ass. This Snart is a cold-blooded thief and killer. Sara doesn’t know why she keeps forgetting that.

He sits across from her. “I see Thawne did a good job searching you.”

Sara lifts one shoulder in a half-hearted shrug. “I can’t give away all my secrets.”

Snart leans forward. “How about just one. Where’s the Taming Sari?”

Sara sighs. “Why do you think I’d tell you?”

“Well,” Snart says slowly. “Darkh will want to torture you to get you to tell us and Thawne will threaten to hurt the people you love.”

“And you?”

“I’m hoping you’ll see reason.”

Sara actually laughs. “What do you want with Taming Sari anyway? It’s just a knife, and there are lots of other weapons for you to chose from.”

Snart flexes his fingers. “I don’t want it, not my style.”

“Oh, yes,” Sara says, eyes glinting. “Your style is distant and cold, I remember.”

His eyebrows furrow, but he doesn’t take the bait. “Darkh’s the one who wants the knife. I believe he said he wanted to take over the world.”

Sara rolls her eyes. “World domination. How original.” She crosses her arms. “Take it from me that Darkh is unlikely to achieve that goal.”

Snart waves it away. “I really don’t care about that. But I can give you something in return for the knife.”

Sara’s intrigued, despite herself. “Is this part of your attempt to reason the information out of me? Because telling me Darkh’s going to use the Taming Sari for world domination isn’t really working out for you.”

“I can bring Laurel back.”

Sara’s heart stops. Her blood roars in her ears as her vision dims. She loosens her grip on the thin razor sharp knives she’d hidden in the seams of her shirt.

Snart doesn’t wait for her to ask how, just keeps talking. He doesn’t sound amused, or patronizing. He’s serious, deadly serious. And Sara can count on one hand the number of times she’s heard him drop the snark before.

“There’s a shield. It can protect you from the knife and Darkh. You can defeat Darkh before he kills your sister.”

Sara is already shaking her head. “Darkh has magic. He was virtually unstoppable. I don’t think a shield is going to make any difference.”

“Not this shield,” Snart says fiercely. “It’s the Shield of Evalach. It grants the wielder heavenly protection equal to the invulnerability granted by the Taming Sari. It would level the playing field.”

Sara folds her hands in her lap to prevent them from shaking. “And what do you get out of this? A knife for someone else to use?”

“I want the shield when you’re done with it.”

Sara studies him. His face is serious and still, but she knows him well, even this version of him. “You want to save yourself and your sister from your father,” she says quietly.

Snart reels back, anger flashing in his eyes. But it’s gone just as quickly as it came. “I keep forgetting,” he says wryly. “You know me in the future.”

Sara takes a deep breath. “I can’t help you, I’m sorry.”

Snart pales, but doesn’t say anything.

“You said they told you about your future, right?”

He nods jerkily.

“If you change your past, I have no idea what kind of impact that will have on your life. You could never be in a position for Rip to recruit you, and that could cause the world to, well, end. Not to be too dramatic.”

Snart rolls his eyes. “Don’t tell me that no one else would have died to save the world.”

“No, Mick was ready to do that.” She almost smiles at his shock. “But that’s not what I meant. We almost failed many times trying to stop Savage. If you, or you and Mick weren’t there, we probably would have lost to him a long time before we got to the Oculus.”

Sara’s silent for a long moment while Snart frowns at the wall behind her.

She sighs. “I hope whatever they promised you is worth it, Leonard.” Sara says quietly. “Because I know these men won’t hesitate to double cross you if it means they get what they want. And I’m sorry, because I don’t know where the Taming Sari is. I can’t help you.”

Snart stands abruptly. “I was never here,” he says, turning on his heel and leaving as quietly as he came.

He leaves the door open behind him, and when Sara ghosts out of the building, she doesn’t see anyone.


	2. Chapter 2

He aims wide.

Sara almost grins, separates her bo staff, and gives chase. When she catches up, he’s leaning against a wall two corners down from the main fight, one foot propped up on the wall and his cold gun resting on his shoulder. His goggles are down around his neck and Sara’s heart constricts at the familiar silhouette.

“Hello, Captain.”

She’s sure he means that as an insult, but it sounds more affectionate than she thinks he intended. “Leonard.” She smiles crookedly. “You’ve got bad aim.”

He scowls. “I’ve got information for you.”

Sara clicks her bo staff back together and leans on it, fingering the knife at the small of her back. She knows he can see it, wants to see how he reacts. She’s a little disappointed. His eyes flick down to her waist but return to her face immediately.

“They know where the Taming Sari is.” Snart’s voice is quiet and grave. “But they’re here for something else. The Armor of Achilles. Supposed to be impenetrable.”

Sara narrows her eyes and swings her staff over her shoulder, leaning against the opposite wall to mirror Snart’s position. “I know they want to take over the world. But why all this equipment? What’s it all for?”

Snart shrugs. “Hell if I know. I’m not in on the master plan,” he says drily. “But I can get you to the armor first.”

Sara clenches her jaw. The urge to believe him unconditionally is strong. “How do I know I can trust you?”

Snart rolls his shoulders in a sort of shrug. “I’m not liking where this is going. There’s no plan. I don’t like to take orders.”

Sara laughs. “Don’t I know it.” She straightens. “All right, Leonard. Lead the way.”

There’s no trap.

“You should get out of here,” Sara says, as they stand shoulder to shoulder staring at the armor.

He glances down at her in surprise.

“Don’t want the team knowing you’re turning on the Legion. It could put you in danger.”

“What if I don’t want to go back to the Legion?”

Sara sighs. “If you come with us, I have to choice but to wipe your memory and return you to the time and location where the Legion took you from. Are you ready for that?”

Leonard rolls his eyes. “See you later, Sara.”

It’s not until later, back on the ship with the Armor of Achilles and the rest of the team safely on board, that Sara realizes Snart had called her by her first name.


	3. Chapter 3

Sara’s smile is feral as she slides the Taming Sari out of its hiding spot in her boot.

Leonard flinches as Thawne vibrates to a halt next to him.

Sara spins the dagger in one hand. “I’ve always wanted to fight a speedster.”

Thawne hits hard, but even with his super-speed, he wasn’t trained by the League of Assassins. And he doesn’t have a miniaturized ATOM watching with a new gadget that’s able to slow down and predict his opponent’s moves. Sara slices him across the chest, and Thawne staggers back at a normal speed. Then he vanishes.

Leonard watches cooly, his expression hard. “I thought you said you didn’t know where it was,” he finally says, watching Sara sheath the dagger again.

Sara shrugs, avoiding his gaze. “I lied.” She collects her bo staff from the floor where she’d dropped it, then looks up at him. “Didn’t you?”

Leonard’s cold expression drops, leaving incredulity. “What do I have to lie about?”

Sara sighs. “You can’t save Laurel. No one can.”

His shoulders sag. “I needed the shield.”

She tilts her head, appraising him. “Tell you what, Leonard. You tell me why you need the shield, and I’ll think about it.”

Then she turns on her heel and walks out, clenching her fists to resist the urge to yank her comm out of her ear. Ray and the rest of the team are deafening, demanding to know what she was talking about.

Two weeks later, Leonard is in the holding cell on the Waverider, staring down a sullen Ray and a surly Mick. Sara waits until it’s late into the night, when most of the team is asleep, before slipping into the room.

She thinks he might be sleeping until he says, “Do you really have to wipe my memories when you bring me back?”

Sara sits on the floor with her back against the wall, stretching her legs out in front of her the way Leonard always does. “Would you join Rip and the team on the Waverider knowing what you do?”

Leonard is quiet for a long moment, then he emerges from the dark corner of the cell and leans a shoulder against the glass door. “I don’t know.”

“Then, yes.”

Leonard looks away.

“I have no way of knowing if you remembered all this when you agreed to go. I have no idea if this always happened or if the Legion changed the timeline. That’s the funny thing about time travel, sometimes you really can’t tell the difference.”

“I always thought changing the past created alternate timelines. That’s how the Flash explained it.”

Sara rolls her head against the wall to look up at him. “The Back to the Future theory.”

Leonard snorts.

“The other theory is that everything we do to change our own pasts was always meant to happen. The Doctor Who theory. Or Harry Potter, if you prefer. Personally, I don’t think it matters that much.”

“Except it’s the difference between me keeping my memories and not.”

Sara sighs, closes her eyes, and wishes that there was some sort of Time Manual she could refer to. “I’m sorry.”

Leonard shrugs. “Maybe it’s not a bad thing. I don’t like hurting people,” he says quietly, his face twisting.

“Why do you need the shield, Leonard?” Sara asks gently.

“My sister’s in trouble with this smuggling ring, in Hub City. I need to get her out.” Leonard’s face is grim. “They’re dangerous, and they kill for fun.”

Sara stands. “That’s what the Legion promised you?”

Leonard nods.

“Well then,” Sara places her palm on the sensor and the door slides open. “Let’s go save Lisa.”


End file.
